The present invention generally relates to improvements in feeding apparatus for cards and the like, and more particularly it relates to an improved apparatus for feeding individual cards one by one from a plurality of cards stacked in superimposed fashion.
Conventionally, there have been proposed a variety of apparatuses for feeding cards one by one from a pluraity of cards arranged in side by side fashion or stacked in superimposed fashion. As a few examples of these apparatuses, a rotating roller engaging the topmost card of a plurality of cards stacked functions to feed the card by peripherally advancing the same, or a pawl engages a trailing edge of a card and advances and feeds the card. In the apparatus which uses a pawl to feed the card, the pawl is normally brought into engagement with one edge, i.e., with the trailing edge of the card perpendicular to the feeding direction of the card and then urges the card forwardly with the urging force from the pawl to the card being alpplied in a direction substantially parallel to the feeding direction of the card. In another apparatus which uses a pawl to feed cards one by one such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,145,023, the pawl engaging an edge of the card urges the card forwardly with the urging force of the pawl following a circular path. While these apparatuses feed cards with relatively high accuracy, a drawback is that in the long run the pawl frequency fails to engage an edge of the card so that no feeding action occurs, that the pawl slips from engagement with the edge of the card during its feeding so that feeding of the card is interrupted in the midst of feeding, or that the pawl tends to mar the card.